life_is_strangefandomcom-20200223-history
Episode 2: Rules - Summary
The two brothers continue their journey into the winter months & struggle against the cold. As Daniel gradually falls ill, Sean decides they must make their way to their distant grandparent’s house to recover. During their stay, they encounter next-door neighbor Chris, a young boy who believes he is a super-hero by the name of Captain Spirit. Sean insists on Daniel following a set of rules around his power. Will Daniel keep his power concealed or break the rules in a time of need? ---- The episode opens with Sean narrating a story that recalls the events of the original episode with Sean, Daniel, and Esteban as wolves, Brody Holloway as a bear, and Hank Stamper and the police as hunters (although the "hunters" are mentioned, they are not physically seen in this segment). Following this, the scene then shows Mushroom running through the snow in Willamette National Forest, where Sean and Daniel have decided to take shelter in an abandoned cabin two months after the incident in Seattle. Mushroom joins Sean and Daniel as they undergo the latest of their many training sessions, which are intended to harness and strengthen Daniel's newfound powers. After Daniel successfully completes several tasks, including raising several cans at once, lifting a large rock, and stopping a snowball in mid-air, the brothers decide to head back to the cabin after Daniel begins coughing due to his worsening fever. They can optionally check the traps around the cabin (with Sean also having the option to prank Daniel). Upon entering the cabin, Sean records Daniel's progress on a chalkboard while Daniel entertains Mushroom by lifting a plate with his powers. Sean reprimands Daniel and reminds him about their rules regarding his telekinesis: "hide your power", "never talk about it", and "run from danger". Following Daniel's affirmation, Sean gets up to prepare dinner by lighting up the wood stove with his father's lighter (which is found in the room where Daniel is), finding a pot in the bathroom, pouring out a can of ravioli into a pot, and setting it onto the stove. After some time, Sean deems the meal ready and calls Daniel down for dinner. Several hours later, after the sky has darkened and the brothers are finishing their dinner, Sean gets up from the table to retrieve a map of Oregon but finds it missing. After asking Daniel of the map's whereabouts, he ends up finding it in Daniel's hideout (which is either a tent stolen from the gas station in Episode 1 or a tarp) but must get Mushroom to move first. As he walks back to the table, Sean is startled by a figure knocking at their door before discovering that Daniel was using his powers to prank him. After either reprimanding Daniel or brushing it off, Sean shows Daniel the map and tells him that he wants them to travel to their grandparents' house in Beaver Creek in order to find help for Daniel's sickness. Daniel agrees, then proposes that they play one last dice game before they leave the cabin behind. Sean may notice Daniel using his powers to cheat and can choose to call him out. After one of the brothers wins and draws on the other's backpack, Sean steps outside to let Mushroom relieve herself. As Sean sits on the porch and smokes a cigarette, he spots a rock embedded in the snow and experimentally tries to lift it, but to no avail. Upon returning inside, Sean finds that Daniel has fallen fast asleep on the mattress, and after adding another piece of wood to the fire, Sean lies down next to him and does the same. that killed Mushroom.|228px]] The next day, as the brothers prepare to leave the cabin behind, one of them notices Mushroom pawing at the screen door and lets her outside. After a few minutes pass, Daniel realizes that Mushroom hasn't returned yet and goes outside to find her while Sean finishes packing up. After filling their water bottles, Sean leaves the house to find Daniel and Mushroom, and after following a trail of blood in the snow and coming across Mushroom's bandanna, he finds Daniel standing in front of Mushroom's corpse by an agitated cougar. Sean attempts to calm him down, but Daniel angrily pushes him away and telekinetically ensnares the cougar. Sean can choose either to make Daniel step back and scare the animal off himself, resulting in the cougar dragging Mushroom's body away, or to not intervene, resulting in Daniel accidentally snapping the cougar's neck with his powers, killing it. After holding a makeshift funeral service for Mushroom regardless whether they have Mushroom's body or not, the brothers leave the cabin behind and begin their hike towards Beaver Creek. After a long journey, Sean and Daniel reach their grandparents' house and are greeted by a surprised Claire and Stephen Reynolds, who quickly take them inside upon learning of Daniel's fever. After being seated in their dining room, Claire and Stephen question Sean about his role in the Seattle incident. After Sean recounts the events of their journey, Stephen decides to let the brothers stay in their home for the time being while Daniel recovers from his fever. Later on, as Sean and Daniel lie on the bed in the Reynolds' guest room, Claire comes up to check on the brothers and offers to say a prayer with them before they sleep, to which Sean and Daniel can individually either accept or refuse. After Claire leaves, Sean and Daniel ask each other about the latter's power and their mother, respectively, before falling asleep. A week later, Sean wakes up to Daniel and Stephen playing with the latter's model railway and Claire calling him down for breakfast. After going downstairs and seating himself at the kitchen counter, Claire serves the brothers waffles and scrambled eggs, which they quickly consume. Daniel begins to use his powers to tidy the plates while Claire's back is turned, which Sean can either stop him from doing or watch in awe. After a short confrontation with Claire over her secretiveness regarding their mother's room, Sean decides to ask Stephen for his keys to the backyard shed in order to retrieve some toys for Daniel. After entering his workshop, Stephen asks Sean to retrieve some glue from his cupboard, which Sean obliges to. As he opens one of its doors, the cupboard starts to fall over, and Stephen rushes over to stop it while apologizing. After they both sit down at his desk, Stephen tells Sean about noticing Daniel using powers over the past week, to which Sean can either tell him the truth or feign ignorance, before giving him the key to the shed. As Sean exits the room, he runs into Claire preparing to go out on a walk, who asks Sean to do some chores before leaving the house. After finding Daniel and telling him to clean their room (which he can either comply with or disobey to), Sean puts on his winter clothing and goes out to the backyard with Daniel. While Sean struggles with the shed's lock, Daniel witnesses Chris Eriksen fall from his tree house and saves him with his telekinesis, unintentionally causing the latter to believe he has superhero powers. After Chris gets up and becomes fast friends with Daniel, Charles Eriksen rushes outside and apologizes profusely to Chris before noticing the brothers, who he gives a cautious greeting to before leading Chris back inside. The next morning, Sean wakes up to find a message left by Daniel stating that he'd gone over to the Eriksens' house. Before going to find Daniel, Sean learns that Claire and Stephen are out attending church, and has the options of using Stephen's laptop to check the news, logging into his Facebook profile, and calling Lyla Park on the Reynolds' household phone. If Sean called Lyla in "Roads", she will pick up the phone and have an emotional conversation with him, during which she reveals that she's on medication due to her insomnia being compounded by her stress over the brothers' disappearance and that the police have been interviewing her for hours. If he didn't, Lyla's mother, Yu-jin Park, will pick up the phone instead and reveal to Sean that Lyla is staying at a clinic due to her worsening mental state. Sean can also reveal who he is or lie to her. If he does tell Yu-jin who he is, she will lash out at him while threatening to call the police. If he doesn't, then she will not be angry with him (but may know who he really is). Upon arriving at the Eriksens' house, Sean discovers that Daniel is using his powers to uphold the illusion that Chris has superpowers. Before they can leave, Charles exits from the bathroom and invites the brothers to come with them to the Christmas market, and after some reluctance, Sean accepts. While Daniel uses the bathroom and Charles gets the truck ready, Sean and Chris bond over a guessing game regarding the moral alignment of Chris' toys. After the game, Sean has the option of asking Chris about Charles and learning of his alcoholism and abuse towards his son. Soon afterwards, Daniel exits the bathroom, and they enter Charles' truck and leave for the Christmas market. While at the market, Sean meets a homeless musician named Cassidy and has the option of listening to her sing a cover of "I Found A Way" by . They have a short conversation, during which Cassidy reveals that she travels with a group of freight hoppers currently headed towards Humboldt County, California. One of her friends, Finn, comes to get her, and the two exchange banter and introduce themselves to Sean and Daniel before leaving. On their way out, Finn and Cassidy are stopped by Nick, who admonishes them for not having their dog on a leash. They mock Nick until he threatens to call the cops on them, then leave together. Daniel expresses anger towards Nick, and Sean can either let Daniel prank him or convince him to let it go. Before leaving, Sean finds a present to give to Daniel for Christmas, which can either be obtained from one of the shopkeepers or stolen from a toy donation box. After Charles drives them back home, he and Sean have a short conversation in his truck, during which Sean can confront him about his alcoholism and convince him to get help from Chris' maternal grandparents. After Sean and Daniel enter the Reynolds' house, Daniel asks Sean to let to visit Karen's old room after hearing about Chris' mementos of his own mother, and Sean decides to come with him to ensure that they don't leave evidence. After either finding the key to the room inside Claire's cardigan or letting Daniel break the door open with his powers, Sean and Daniel explore the bedroom and find a recent-looking letter from Karen among her old belongings. Within the letter, Karen pleads for her parents to help Sean and Daniel should they find them after the Seattle incident, causing Daniel to believe that she wants to find them. As he asks to reread the letter, Claire bursts into the room with Stephen and angrily confronts them about violating their privacy and breaking her rule about not going into the room. While Sean and Daniel argue with Claire over their right to know about their mother, Stephen is overcome with emotion and leaves the room. A few minutes later, a loud crash and Stephen's yell are heard from downstairs, and the three rush to his workshop to find him pinned underneath the cupboard. As they try to lift it off, Sean has the option of telling Daniel to use his powers or pulling him out together; if he does the former, Stephen is pulled out unharmed and Claire being momentarily frightened before being reassured by Stephen, and if he does the latter, Stephen's legs are permanently injured. Soon afterwards, a sheriff rings the doorbell and reveals that he knows the brothers are there, either due to someone seeing them at the market, Sean using Stephen's laptop, or Sean using the phone to call Lyla's home. To avoid incriminating their grandparents, Sean and Daniel escape through the back door while Claire distracts the sheriff. Daniel told Chris the truth= Daniel told Chris the truth If Daniel told Chris the truth about his powers, the brothers come across Chris sitting on his backyard swing. Upon realizing that the brothers have to leave, Chris gives Daniel his cape and directs them towards a shortcut to avoid the police. As they leave, Daniel sees Chris making the Spirit Squad pose from the top of the tree house, and he does the pose in return before running off with Sean. |-|Daniel didn't tell Chris the truth= Daniel didn't tell Chris the truth If Daniel either wasn't told to tell Chris the truth or disobeyed Sean, the brothers are spotted by a police car while cutting across the road. As the car drives towards them, Chris jumps out from his backyard and attempts to stop the car using his powers. If Daniel has been encouraged to use his powers, he will use them to swerve the police car off the road. Chris turns around to witness Daniel holding up his hand before being pulled away by Sean, and looks on in confusion and betrayal as the brothers run off. If Daniel was repressed from using his powers, he does nothing to stop the police car as it runs into Chris, and the brothers run away as Chris lies on the ground unmoving. Later on, Sean comforts Daniel over his remorse regarding how he handled Chris' situation as they sit on a rock overlooking Beaver Creek's railroad. Sean gives Daniel his Christmas present from the market, and if Daniel isn't too upset, he gives Sean a drawing of him in exchange. Upon hearing a rumbling in the distance, the brothers run down the hill and jump aboard a passing freight train, taking them out of Beaver Creek. The ending scene shows what looks like a greenhouse. Sean and Daniel can then be heard talking to Cassidy. Category:Season 2 Category:Episode 2: Rules Category:Episode Summaries